Bands

The bands that make up Bandom are all interlinking, usually having developed a relationship through touring together, being on the same record label (specifically Fueled by Ramen/Decaydance), or having band members who were previously in other band together.[1] In fact, because of the degree of interconnectedness of these bands, many will, often jokingly, make reference to Six Degrees of Wentz, where all the bands can be linked back to Pete Wentz (bassist of Fall Out Boy) and each other with less than six degrees of separation. As a result, most of these band members will often appear in supporting roles even in fanworks not centered around their band, making crossover a popular genre (though intra-Bandom crossovers would not often be labeled as such).

See this flowchart of Bandom interconnections, created by wistfuljane as part of the comprehensive Subset Bandom Connection primer:

My Chemical Romance (MCR or My Chem) is a punk-rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The members are Gerard Way (lead vocals; lyrics), Frank Iero (guitar), Ray Toro (guitar), and Mikey Way (bass). Touring musicians for the band include James DeWees (keyboard; backing vocals), Mike Pedicone (drums; 2010-2011) and Jarrod Alexander (drums). Former members include Bob Bryar (drums; 2004-2010) and Matt Pelissier (drums; 2001-2004). The band announced that it was breaking up in March 2013.

Panic! at the Disco (P!atD or Panic!) is a band from Las Vegas that happily defies categorisation (but has been called anything from punk, pop, punk-cabaret, dance-punk, to emo). The original outfit founded in 2004 included Brendon Urie (lead vocals; guitar; keyboard), Ryan Ross (lyrics, occasional lead vocals; backing vocals; guitar), Brent Wilson (bass) and Spencer Smith (drums). In 2006, Brent Wilson was replaced by Jon Walker (bass; backing vocals), the lone Chicagoan of the band. In the summer of 2009, Panic split up, an event sometimes referred to as "The Divorce": Ryan and Jon created The Young Veins, while Brendon and Spencer remained as Panic! At The Disco (taking back their exclamation point). Ian Crawford and Dallon Weekes joined as touring musicians on guitar and bass, respectively. Dallon was added as a core member in 2012. Spencer Smith left the band in early 2015, due in part to struggles with drug addiction. Many fans have jokingly referred to the band as Brendon! at the Brendon, because of the fact that he is the only original member of the band left, and the biggest influence on where the band is heading.

The Cab was a late addition to the Bandom bands, signing to Decaydance in 2007 with the help of fellow Las Vegans Panic! at the Disco. Along with Panic! at the Disco, it is one of the most popular bands to feature GSF. The name stands for "The Cash and Alex band," a play on drummer Cash Colligan and the fact that most of the other members are called Alex (Alex DeLeon, Alex Marshall, Alex Johnson), apart from guitarist Ian Crawford (who went to join Panic after the Panic divorce.)

Gym Class Heroes (GCH) is signed to the FBR/Decaydance label. Lead singer Travis McCoy commonly appears in fic (especially Cobra Starship and TAI fic), but the other members appear more rarely.

The Hush Sound (THS) is a FBR/Decaydance band that has been on hiatus since 2008 and whose members are currently involved in other projects. Singer Greta Salpeter is notable as the only other female band member in the main of Bandom besides Cobra's Vicky-T, and thus Greta/Vicky-Tfemslash is relatively popular.

Hey Monday is signed to the Decaydance label. They rarely appear in fic.

Mindless Self Indulgence (MSI) is notable for their connections to My Chemical Romance. MSI bassist Lyn-Z and MCR frontman Gerard Way got married backstage after Projekt Revolution in 2007, for which the two bands toured together. Kitty, their drummer, also often appears in fics which need an extra minor female character.

The Sounds is a Swedish band, associated with Bandom by singer Maja Ivarsson's appearance on the Cobra Starship debut single "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" for the 2006 film Snakes on a Plane. At the time, Cobra Starship had only one member, singer Gabe Saporta, but the single also featured William Beckett (TAI), Travie McCoy (GCH), and Nick Wheeler (AAR).

The Like is an all-girl band, so popular when someone tries to include more female characters or femslash in their fic. Z Berg, the lead singer, came to the attention of bandom when she and Ryan Ross were dating and got fake-married on Twitter. Their first incarnation was Z, Tennessee Thomas and Charlotte, then Charlotte left amid drama (see lyrics to Narcissus in a Red Dress on their second album), and Laena and Annie joined. picspam intro by annemaris

The Long Island bands--a collective term for Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, and Straylight Run, who are all bands from Long Island--are also of peripheral interest to bandom. These bands all share a significant link, as members of each band were in a band together at some point in the past.[2] Taking Back Sunday has also toured frequently with MCR and are good friends with them.

Associated Pre-Bandom Bands

Many of the band members have been in bands prior to their current ones and those bands are rather notable within Bandom, including Pencey Prep, Midtown, and 504Plan.

Fueled By Ramen/Decaydance

Fueled By Ramen (FBR) is a record label, founded by John Janick and Vinnie Fiorello (drummer of Less Than Jake) in 1996 and based out of Florida, to which Fall Out Boy is signed; FBR is sometimes referred as Fall Out Boy's indie label as they are also under contract with Island Records. When Pete Wentz (bassist of Fall Out Boy) founded Decaydance Records in 2005, it was an imprint label under Fueled By Ramen - any acts signed to Decaydance Records were also signed to Fueled By Ramen, i.e. Gym Class Heroes, Panic at the Disco, The Hush Sound, Cobra Starship, The Cab, but the contract between Decaydance Records and Fueled By Ramen has since expired.[3][4]

Bessyboo describes the history of Bandom as consisting of two waves of fans, the first circa 2006-2009 and the second circa 2010-2013; the most popular pairings during the first wave were Pete/Patrick, Brendon/Ryan, and Frank/Gerard, and the most popular pairings during the second wave were Frank/Gerard and Brendon/Spencer.[5] During the first wave, Panic! At the Disco was the most popular band for fanfic, but when it split in 2009, everyone's OTP was ruined, so the fandom diminished considerably. Meanwhile Fall Out Boy went on indefinite hiatus in 2009, though later Patrick Stump released an EP and Pete Wentz toured with Black Cards so fandom didn't forget them completely. In 2010, MCR's album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys ushered in the second wave of fans and spawned a lot of fic set in the AU world of the concept album. (This has happened before for other concept albums and single videos in bandom, but not in such a large volume or as such a distinct subset of the fandom.) MCR was then the most popular band in Bandom until its breakup in 2013, after which many of the denizens of Bandom slowly packed up and moved on to other fandoms. However, shortly before MCR broke up, FOB reformed, so there was still plenty of new Pete/Patrick fic, possibly representing a third wave.[6] As of 2015, the fandom's big bang challenge is still running, and some fan artists on DeviantArt continue to be interested in MCR members' solo projects.

Pairings

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Because the majority of the musicians in the bands are male, slash is the most common genre, though gen, het and femslash can be found (often featuring the female musicians and more commonly the wives and girlfriends (WAGs) of the musicians).

There are many popular pairings in bandom, both intra-band and inter-band, the latter of which are sometimes referred to as crossover pairings. The most popular pairings are usually based on band members' public or fan-perceived relationships with each other.

Almost any conceivable pairing can be found, and many fans don their tin hats and promote their favourite pairing using picspams, vidspams, and quotes to illustrate the connection between the band members involved. Individual pairing love is encouraged, and ship wars are almost non-existent. bandom_ships is a community created to celebrate one's OTP, OT3 or GSF with ship manifestos, much like the multi-fandom LiveJournal community ship_manifesto.

Common intra-band pairings

In order of popularity of pairing tag on AO3, as of Sept 11, 2014. (Note that AO3 might not be an accurate representation of the popularity of pairings as Bandom predates the archive and all works might not be reposted there):

It must be noted that while many early Bandom fans shared a dislike for smushnames, associating the terms with low quality fic and tinhatting,[12] the relative decline of journal-based fandoms, the rise of Tumblr and Wattpad and the influx of newer fans have democratized the use of smushnames. See dedicated Tumblr communities such as:

Pan-bandom fic

A large subset of bandom fic features stories or universes in which multiple bands and pairings can be found. These can be either canon-based stories (commonly set during tours while the bands were out on the road together) or AUs. The various pairings might occur in the same story or be showcased in different parts of a same verse. For example:

The Hammond Affair by queensheep (LJ): this 96,000-word Jurassic Park AU features no less than 10 pairings, both inter- and intra-band.

The Fourth Wall

The Fourth Wall in Bandom has been described as being "more like a fringe curtain."[13] There exist numerous occurrences of bands acknowledging fandom and commenting on fan activities, as well as extensive debate amongst fans as to appropriate behaviour relating to maintaining the Fourth Wall - or not.